A city entrepreneur is seeking to inspire others to follow in his business footsteps as he takes the reins of the West Midlands Young Institute of Directors.

Founder member James Villarreal, chief executive and co-founder of property bills firm Glide, has taken over chairmanship of the organisation from Michelle Leavesley. He aims to treble the number of members aged under 42 years old in the region.

East End Foods director Jason Wouhra, who is a former vice chair and fellow Young IoD founding member and current chairman of the IoD West Midlands, said: “James has a tough act to follow Michelle, but he is a success in all he does, so I’m sure the Young IoD will be no exception.”

Mr Villarreal also wants to attract sponsors to support the group.

He said: “We want to build a support network for young directors to become great leaders, so we’ll be teaming up with all sorts of organisations from the London Stock Exchange to Birmingham’s professional services organisations. Our style is not stuffy or pinstripe suits, but about being there in a real way for young leaders.”

Mr Villarreal has also established a new committee comprising of vice-chair Paul Morgan (PRM Wealth Management), Ranjit Bajway (DWF), Rob Bloxham (ORB), Neil Holloway (Artemis Executive), Dean Kavanagh (Geotech), Jason Langford-Brown (Lucid), Alex McIntosh (Barclays), Mark Petty (Nextira), Christine Rouse (Circle Square), Anthony Tattum (Big Cat) and Greg White (Purple Frog).

The new Young IoD chairman started Glide in 2006 with associate Sandeep Krishan when they were both students at the University of Birmingham. He also became the youngest person to win Birmingham Young Professional of the Year award in 2010 at the age of 24.